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PROFITS OF THIS EDITION GIVEN TO THE BAZAAR FUND FOR THE
NEW ORGAN AT WESTBOURNE GROVE CHAPEL.
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LONDON:
PRINTED BY GRIFFITHS & Co., “PADDINGTON MERCURY” OFFICE,
58, PORCHESTER ROAD, W.
_Dedicated to my Young Friends_.
I have thought it would be interesting to you to know something about the
locality in which you live, as it was in times gone by.
The changes have been marvellous, but not more than many others within my
recollection.
I knew the time when gas was not used, but when streets and shops were
lighted with oil lamps. When no police guarded our streets, but watchmen
paid their half-hourly visits crying out “past 11 o’clock, &c., and a
starlight night, &c.”
I remember when no omnibuses ran, and cabmen sat by the side of their
fares.
When 4-horse coaches ran to Greenwich, Kensington, and other suburban
places.
When the only way to obtain a light was to strike a flint on a piece of
steel, and catch the sparks on tinder, and to puff at the tinder till it
lighted a brimstone match.
When the Great Reform Bill was passing, and I used to be let out of
school at 2 o’clock, because the men of Birmingham and Manchester, &c.,
threatened to march to London—The Tower was fortified—Temple Bar guarded.
I remember George the Fourth’s burial, and the people making a grand
holiday.
I saw the procession at William the Fourth’s Coronation, and also at that
of Queen Victoria.
“Long may she live.”
PART I.
“NOTES” OF KENSINGTON, NOTTING HILL, AND PADDINGTON.
Before entering upon my own remembrances of Kensington and Paddington, it
will be interesting to notice some things connected with the history of
these places.
Kensington is mentioned in the Domesday Book as Chenesiton. Chenesi was
a proper name, and “Lyson” says that in the time of Edward the Confessor
a person of that name held a manor in Somersetshire. It may be that
Kensington was once a town belonging to a “Chenesi.” At the time of the
Romans this district comprised the northern boundary of the marshes
formed by the overflowing of the Thames, Chelsea and Fulham being liable
to inundation, but the higher elevation of a great portion of this parish
rendered it fit for cultivation.
In 1218, in the reign of Henry III., it was disafforested. Before this
time it, with Paddington, had formed a portion of the Forest of
Middlesex.
In Henry the Eighth’s time a great portion of Notting Hill and Paddington
was still forest as appears from records dated 1543.
In 1610 Sir Walter Cope became possessed of the manor of St. Mary Abbot’s
by a grant from the Queen. It is recorded that he died possessed of the
manor called Earl’s Court, Kensyngton, with its appurtenances, in
Kensyngton, Chelsey, Hammersmith and St. Margaret’s, Westminster. Two
hundred acres belonging to the Ould House Kensyngton and all that wood
called Notting Wood or Knotting Wood, for which he paid as under:—
Manor of Abbot’s £5 0 0 per ann.
Earl’s Court 2 0 0 ,,
Ould House and land 5 0 0 „
Knotting wood 1 0 0 ,,
St. Margaret’s Westminster 1 0 0 ,,
The Kensington division of the hundred of Ossulstan includes Fulham,
Hammersmith, Chiswick, Acton, part of Brentford, Ealing, Willesden and
Chelsea.
The name of the hundred is probably derived from the German word Waassel
which signifies water. Others suggest Ousel, a bird, Ossultun, a town
noted for its birds.